Welcome

Saturday, December 31, 2011

The New Year is a great time to perform some much needed life-changing magics. Take the time to reflect on the past year, cultivate gratefulness for all that you received, clear out the bad, and open the way for new blessings with a new year. I am a firm believer in the idea that what spiritual forces you tap into on this night will set the stage for the rest of the year.

Start 2012 right and rather than simply being drunk, be drunk with passion, love, gratefulness, and joy. Such is the first step towards a fulfilling new year. Light a candle, say a prayer, and start things off right.

Every year I perform a blessing and road opening ritual on behalf of all my clients, blog-subscribers, friends, and those who request me to. At the stroke of midnight the candles will be lit and spirit will be moving.

Thank you to all my readers, to a great community on the blogosphere, old friends, and new friends! Blessings on our New Year!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

It has been a busy couple of months as I've been working on several projects. For those interested you can look for more upcoming texts, a set of email courses, and a hands on workshop.

However, I wanted to take the time to address the trend of the spirit-friendly approach and I call this a "trend" deliberately. Like all things in society, the occult works in trends and waves. Certain approaches, traditions, and modes of thinking become popular then fade away. There was a time when the psychological model was popular, when chaos magic was popular, and now the ATRs are gaining in popularity.

One such trend is the spirit-friendly approach, which some link to the increasing interest in the paradigm and spiritual technology of the ATRs. This approach differs from the purist grimoire approach which can also be said to have gained in popularity almost as a reaction against the increase of the spirit-friendly approach.

As its name suggests, the spirit-friendly methods treat spirits as companions, allies, and beings that should be venerated, given offerings, and worked with in other ways that can be seen as starkly different from the command, threaten, and coerce methods normally associated with the grimoires.

It may surprise many, but I am actually not in the spirit-friendly camp. However, allow me to qualify this statement. My approach to spirits is tempered heavily by the spiritual traditions that I was brought up with, that of Hoodoo-Rootwork and djinn conjuring. Over my extensive career of working from a model that tends towards spirit-centric, I have further confirmed that the perspectives shared by Hoodoo and djinn conjuring is the right method for me.

I prefer to see this approach as spirit-respectful rather than spirit-friendly. While this may seem semantics, it is an important distinction. This is especially the case since, as is common with trends, spirit-friendly has veered into somewhat extreme territories. One finds people who ascribe to these methods in such an extreme manner in that all spirits are seen as potential allies, friend, and pals. To me this is as limiting as the approach where all spirits are classed as either "demonic" or "angelic."

Reality rarely falls into such dualistic camps. There are those that decry all of the goetic spirits as evil and wicked while others have made all of them bedfellows. Both such approaches are based on extremes that are not only potentially limiting, but also based off of limited experiences with such spirits.

It is arrogant to assume that the world of spirit is less complicated than the world of humans, or that spirits are more one-dimensional than us. I have found them to be deeply complex beings with motives, agendas, personalities, and quirks as unique and complicated as our own.

In the traditions I am versed in, the approach to such spirits is no different than approaching a stranger on the street. One is respectful, but cautious. It would be strange if you assumed a level of familiarity with a stranger on the street that simply was not reflective of the fact that you just met. Similarly, it would be strange if you grabbed a stranger (who may turn out to be quite capable of kicking your ass) by the lapel and demanded that they go off and run an errand for you. Why should it be any different with the world of spirit?

There are spirits out there that are quite friendly. These beings are interested in the lives of men, want to be involved in our world, and are very helpful. Some of these beings are serene and others chaotic, but they share the similar motive of wanting to be involved with us. I have met other spirits that are aloof and cold, while not openly hostile they are not easily approachable, either. Furthermore there are those spirits who are openly hostile and virulent. Using one blaket approach to them all is foolish and dangerous.

The approach that I find most helpful is one where caution is taken, but spirits are treated in a respectful and courteous manner. This allows one the opportunity to get to know the spirit and gauge their temperament. This "getting to know" process allows one the versatility to approach working with spirits in a variety of ways and is also more reflective of a real attempt at developing a rapport with spirits and their world. To continue with the analogy above, strangers can become good friends whom you can share a meal with (offerings), who you invite home for dinner (housing a spirit), or in other ways develop a friendship. However there are some strangers that are down right evil and others who are pathological liars. The spirit-respectful approach acknowledges the existence of all of these types of spirits and helps ensure that the magus can tell the difference between them and deal with each situation according to the temperament of the spirit.

An openly hostile approach as some have adopted would alienate potential allies, while a too friendly approach would allow parasites and liars into your home.

In my travels I have met spirits that turned into willing allies and strong teachers and I have met others that required to be exorcised or dealt with sternly. There were yet others that were greatly helpful to me, but due to their temperament needed to be worked with cautiously. To put otherwise, there are some spirits who no matter how friendly, you wouldn't invite into your house for a cup of tea simply due to their nature.

By keeping one's mind open and approaching spirits in a courteous, but respectful manner, the magus is equipped to deal more readily with various spirit temperaments while also grounding his experiences in a more realistic and pragmatic paradigm.

About Me

ConjureMan Ali, also known to some as Dr. Raven, is a traditional conjurer and magus--a practitioner of old world sorceries and new world magicks. He works within the grimoire tradition along with its Middle Eastern counterparts and is a professional rootworker. A graduate of catherine yronwode's Hoodoo and Rootwork Correspondence Course, he's a spiritual practitioner who reads and performs rootwork on behalf of clients and is an accredited and reputable member of the Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers. A Tata in the tradition of Quimbanda, his approach to the occult and magick is scholarly and practical with an emphasis on classical occult education combined with real-world practice. He is a diviner, an astrologer, a geomancer, cartomancer, and a dreamer. If you are interested in learning more about him or the services he offers go to www.conjuremanali.com